Stile: Christie's State House — and career — makeover

As Governor Christie sketched out plans on Tuesday to restore the State House to its Gilded Age grandeur, he slipped in perhaps his final pitch for a top post in Donald J. Trump’s administration.

The governor ever so deftly dusted off his résumé as a post-9/11 federal prosecutor for New Jersey, noting that terrorists will have a much tougher time hauling weapons into the executive wing. Under his $300 million blueprint, future visitors will be screened in a state police facility outside the building.

“As anybody who understands homeland security, as I do, knows, you don’t screen people for explosives and weapons inside the building, where you're in fact concerned that they may use those explosives and weapons,” Christie said during a noon hour announcement in the State House rotunda.

Christie went to great lengths on Tuesday to cast himself as a man resigned to his fate, an exile from Trump World now devoting his energy and ardor to his final 13 months on the job. He was now going to tend to the long-neglected task of turning the firetrap into a tourist draw, possibly with a plaque bearing his name — something to gaze at wistfully when he returns as elder statesman.

READ: Christie announces $300M State House renovation

But in truth, he was still auditioning for an exit visa from the State House, signaling that he might just be the right man for the unfilled post as director of Homeland Security. Despite Christie’s fall from grace, he is still clinging to the dream of a Washington life as he clings to his Trenton job, forced to finish out a lame-duck term with limited power and time.

And why not cling to the dream? Yes, Christie has been humiliated like no other Trump loyalist, the erstwhile leader of the Trump transition abruptly demoted in the post-election dawn. Some say Christie’s ouster was engineered by Trump’s vengeful son-in-law, Jared Kushner, still seething over Christie’s prosecution of Kushner’s father, Charles, more than a decade ago. Others theorize that Trump was alarmed and disgusted by the convictions of two Christie associates in the George Washington Bridge lane closings last month. Still others speculate that Trump was unhappy that Christie loaded up his transition team with cronies and lobbyists.

It depends on what version you want to believe.

But nobody in Trump’s inner circle has officially written — or tweeted — the obituary of Christie’s job prospects. If anything, there's Christie’s Nov. 20 grip-and-grin meeting with Trump at his golf course in Bedminster. Maybe Trump was simply offering Christie a face-saving consolation prize after the public relations battering of the previous weeks.

Yet, as the nation has discovered, anything is possible in the chaotic, short-attention-span Trump transition, where bitter enemies — Mitt Romney is one example — are pursued with vigor. Trumpians who are highly rated one day see their stock plummet the next, only to see it rise again.

Christie’s name is still listed by Politico.com as one of seven possible candidates for the Homeland Security post. The new director will be tasked to build Trump’s “beautiful” wall, sealing off the U.S. border with Mexico. Christie was never a fan of the wall, and in fact, he mocked the wall as a sham and dismissed Trump’s suggestion that the Mexican government pay for it.

"This makes no sense. I've met [Mexican] President Nieto a number of times. I don't think if we present him with a bill he's going to pay for it," Christie told CNN. "This is not negotiation of a real estate deal, OK? This is international diplomacy, and it's different."

Then again, criticizing Trump is hardly a disqualifier. Romney, who called Trump a “fraud” and a “phony” and mobilized the stop-Trump forces within the GOP establishment, is seriously being considered as Trump’s secretary of state.

Homeland Security also will oversee Trump’s promised crackdown on undocumented immigrants, and Christie has shown a willingness to cast himself among the extreme-vetting hard-liners when necessary — he raised eyebrows last year when he said the United States should turn away Syrian refugees under the age of 5.

But for the most part, Christie dwelled on his plans to make the State House great again. For a moment, he was the state’s chief code enforcer, vowing to replace air ducts, creaky windows, ancient wiring and the overall “shameful” conditions in the 224-year-old building.

He said it was the ideal project for a lame-duck governor because no one could accuse him of trying to upgrade the governor’s office into a palatial spa. The project will take about four years and will force the next governor to work off-site, which Christie’s predecessors refused to do.

Of course, Christie could have easily authorized the work to begin in 2014, when he was out of town for large swaths of time, raising money for the Republican Governors Association, or last year, when he ran a full-time presidential campaign. Apparently, the renovation wasn’t high enough on his priority list, nor the “responsibility of history,” nor the safety concerns he outlined. The career came first.

But Christie stressed on Tuesday that he’s staying put and will evacuate his office for the final eight months of his term —  unless, of course, Trump rescues him with the right job offer, whether it's Homeland Security or some consolation prize post.

“I am telling you that I am completing my term," he insisted. “Now, I will also tell you that if something extraordinary happens in the world where my service is needed, I will consider a request ... that's not being equivocal about it. That's understanding what the real world is.”

The real world of Trenton may keep Christie anchored in Trenton. Yet, it may be awhile before he finally closes the door on Trump World.